„Zeus” Arrives at Bercsényi Battalion

Some days ago the warship crew of the Hungarian Defence Forces sailed the vessel stationed in the north-eastern region of Hungary downstream, from the 10th river kilometer of Bodrog through the 541st river kilometer of Tisza (Tokaj) to the 333rd river kilometer of Tisza (Szolnok).

Having passed through the locks by Tiszalök and Kisköre, the ship arrived at Szolnok, the venue of the ceremony where Lt.-Col. Zsolt Szilágyi, the acting commander of the HDF 1st Honvéd EOD and Warship Regiment handed over the war flag of the ship to Col. Tamás Sándor, the commander of the HDF 34th “Bercsényi László" SOF Battalion.

Although the warship has been handed over for operation, it continues to remain under the management of the EOD and warship regiment. In the future, it will support the diver training of the Szolnok unit and the joint search and rescue (SAR) training tasks of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base and the SOF battalion.

Col. Tamás Sándor told us that in addition to the vessels already in the TOE of the unit, for the purposes of the training and deployability of the military organization it is especially important that they be able to use a larger ship which can carry a whole operational detachment alpha (ODA) aboard on missions.

It was stated that the ship provides an excellent opportunity for training and preparing the specialized personnel of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base and the HDF 25/88 Airmobile Battalion, as well as for providing safe support to the conduct of riverine operations.

The AN-2 minesweeper was built in the shipyard of Lake Balaton in 1954. In 2001, the warship crews transferred it under the management of the Erdőbénye holiday resort. Converted to a water bus, from that time on the ship used to set out from the Szegilong water camp to carry passengers on boat trips organized by the holiday resort on River Bodrog between Tokaj and Sárospatak.

Capt. László Danyikó, the commander of the warship section, 1LT Norbert Daruka, the commander of the minesweeper AM-31 “DUNAÚJVÁROS", SFC Attila Turóczi, the chief navigator of the AM-31, SFC András Kubiczki, subsection technician and SFC Lajos Kaló, the commander of the Baja EOD patrol boat sailed the ship downstream to Szolnok.